Citigroup preachifying again

Just when I have almost forgotten my irritation over the rating agencies which was the subject of my last post, here comes Citigroup sermonizing about the loose monetary  policy regime followed by the Philippine central bank.

Coming from a company that received $45 billion TARP bailout and yet had the gall to pay bonuses in the hundred of millions, I can only say: Kapalmuks nyo naman!

A colossal failure of rating agencies

Finished reading during the xmas break - December 23 to 27.

 This book is highly recommended, at least by me, as a definitive introduction to the behind-the-scene activities that lead to the subprime crisis. It details how the big 3  rating agencies - Moody's, Fitch, S&P - were deeply involved in the mess.

These rating firms have no business nor the credibility giving out ratings on the Philippines or any other country. They rated Lehman's bonds highly and left investors clutching worthless bonds. And they are still on the roll.

What's worse is that Fitch is doing its rating game again in the Philippines; Moody's adds its voice to make a duet and S&P chimes in to complete a chorus.

Now reading the Greatest Show On Earth

I was with the missus at Ayala last Saturday afternoon. Our daughter May Hara was attending the CPA oathtaking and ball at the Cebu Sports Complex that evening. The missus would be her guest. I was never good in escorting somebody to a ball; in fact has never been to a ball.

The evening ball was to start at 6PM yet so us couple went around checking prices of this and that merchandise while the daughter went straight to the event venue for the registration and other things.

I decided I might as well buy Prof. Dawkins' latest epic. So I got this:






Oops! Not that one but this:









This is available at Fullybooked.

Highly recommended for those who need to validate or update their understanding of evolution. The creationists, they're beyond help. Let them be.

Meal coupon courtesy of Air Philippines

This is kind of late now. But I remembered our lousy experience with PAL when I saw this meal coupon in my stack of documents.

When my co-employee and I were about to check in for our flight back to Cebu from Iloilo we were met with the announcement that our flight was cancelled. No reason was given. I am more inclined to believe that the low-cost flight was cancelled because there was not enough passengers.

Our other fellow employee had gone earlier on the Cebu Pacific plane although we arrived at the airport together. To think that he was a little miffed while we were yet in Cebu because he was not able to book on the same flight with us.

It would be soon dark and by then we should have been home in Cebu were it not for the cancellation. Many passengers were asking for meals or accommodation until the next flight. The station manager of Air Philippines handed out meal coupons and offered a roundabout passage to Cebu via Manila aboard a big PAL jet.

It seemed Air Philippines/PAL thought we all deserved a 75-Peso worth of dinner at an airport bakery.

12 Years of Good Governance in the Offing

I am thrilled at the prospect of a Noynoy-Mar tandem. It will mean 12 years of good governance finally for this benighted country. Noynoy in 2010 and Mar in 2016. My father who was a card-carrying Liberal would have applauded.

Although I am a little apprehensive of Korina being First Lady, I can live with that!

Kaikog, Delicadeza

I have always wondered about the equivalent of the Cebuano word kaikog in other Philippine languages or in English. With the Le Cirque incident I am now almost sure that the nearest equivalent is the Spanish delicadeza.

Kaikog or delicadeza has many facets. Lawyer Angie Umbac defines delicadeza as "knowing you are right but tempering your actions to consider the sensibilities of others. It is a form of diplomacy, of good manners, of respect for other and knowing your place in the universe." (see Philippine Daily Inquirer)

My family lives in a mixed neighborhood. The better off families line the side of the street of what passes for a subdivision. Our home is at the back of one of these well-off families. And even beyond our house are our poor neighbors who live on rented lots although they are simply lumped most of the time by census takers into the category of squatters. Our poor neighbors and us have to pass through an undefined right of way. Undefined meaning the right of way can be fenced off anytime the rich owner decides to use the vacant lot cutting us off from the subdivision street that connects us to the main road.

Some households along the subdivision street simply wash their cars on the side of the narrow street making the path muddy for us who have to pass on foot. One can call them "walay kaikog". Or as my Spanish-speaking grandpa would say "falta delicadeza". Perhaps as subdivision residents they may have the right to use the street the way they wanted. But they have no kaikog for us poorer residents whose slippers, shoes or bare feet get stuck in the mud as a result of their washing their cars on the street.

Our community has no waste water drainage system. (Doesn't that sound familiar for all places in our poor country?) So the people on the subdivision and the poor neighborhood just make use of the law of physics which says that water seek its own level. Overtime, drainage canals just sprung up here and there: on the subdivision street, on the informal right of ways, along the concrete fences. But mostly people make sure the water do not run through or stay in their properties. I can understand the situation of the poor families. With barely a space for their homes to stand on, they don't have a place for their waste water. But I am frustrated when the families with big lots just bore holes through their concrete fences and allow their drainage to flow into other people's lot.

I made sure from the start of our stay in the neighborhood that our waste water stays within our lot by digging a drainage tank. Environmentally speaking, this is not an excellent choice. But that is a subject matter for another day.

The simple reason is that I always believe in kaikog towards my neighbors.

Ooops! I am violating another aspect of delicadeza as defined by Shirley Lua (see again the PDI). She says delicadeza or kaikog is "an attitude of modesty . . ."

Where are the bridges?

This is from the front page of the Cebu Daily News. It shows children crossing a river in a mountain barangay of Cebu City on their way to school. After school, of course, they would be doing the same thing on their way back home.

So where is the bridge?






It's here in downtown Cebu City. And in many other parts of the city. They call this structure skywalk.

At least this particular skywalk is actually used by schoolchildren. But most of the other skywalks are just billboards for advertisements of the congressman or senator who funded their construction.